Tax plan for more cops not on ballot

STOCKTON - The backers of the Stockton Safe Streets sales tax proposal for fighting crime have missed their opportunity to put a citizens' initiative on the ballot this year.

Scott Smith

STOCKTON - The backers of the Stockton Safe Streets sales tax proposal for fighting crime have missed their opportunity to put a citizens' initiative on the ballot this year.

Stockton voters coming to the polls Nov. 5 will have one tax measure - if that - to choose from. The city continues to push forward on its own tax hike to fund the Marshall Plan on Crime and pay debts.

The missed deadline eliminates a possibility of putting two competing measures on the same ballot.

That's not the end of the world, said Allen Sawyer, a Stockton-based political consultant, who pushed the Safe Streets tax plan, which was also backed by Mayor Anthony Silva and developer Matthew Arnaiz.

"Yes, we understand we missed that deadline and did so willingly," Sawyer said. "We are working on a compromise."

The Safe Streets proposal sought to raise $18 million yearly with a half a cent sales tax hike, putting 100 more police on the street. The highly restricted tax would have required two-thirds of voter approval.

That restrictive initiative also drew strong opposition from city officials, such as City Manager Bob Deis, who has said that channeling new revenue solely to police would keep the city in perpetual bankruptcy, among other problems.

The Safe Streets initiative also butted up against the competing tax initiative expected from City Hall to fund the Marshall Plan and pay down Stockton's debts that sent the city into bankruptcy.

Deis is expected to present his tax initiative to the City Council on June 25.

That plan will likely ask voters to pass a general tax, which would require a simple majority of voter approval and ask for a three-quarter cent sales tax hike.

Under bankruptcy protection, Stockton next year will suspend $22 million in debt payments, which have to be addressed for the city to emerge from Chapter 9.

Uncertainty looms because for Deis to put an initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot, he will need support from all seven council members - including Silva. The two have been at odds since Silva took office in January.

Silva did not respond Friday to a request for an interview to answer if he would support Deis' proposal.

City Clerk Bonnie Paige said there is no hard-and-fast deadline that the Safe Streets backers missed, but it would be unlikely that they could accomplish a series of required steps to make this year's ballot.

They haven't submitted their ballot language to the City Attorney's Office for approval, which is required before they could collect 12,000 signatures. The county's Registrar of Voters would also need time to verify the signatures.

It is not likely the Safe Streets coalition could accomplish these, and other steps in a complex and time-consuming process, by Aug. 9, the 88-day deadline before the election, Paige said.

While Sawyer acknowledged they are too late this year, he said the Safe Streets coalition achieved putting public safety front and center of the debate in Stockton. If city leaders forget that, they'll be back, Sawyer said.

"The whole purpose of Stockton Safe Streets is to make sure the city ... leaders never set priorities that weaken public safety," he said. "If our city leaders forget this lesson ... we will be at the ballot at some future date."